Am late to Sext but wanted to notice the Polish Royal Opera in Warsaw, which I'd never heard of before reading about its principal conductor, Dawid Runtz. It was established only in 2017 and evidently the 'Królewska' as part of the name is in honor of the Vasa monarchs and the electoral kings, all of them.
Preserving the memory of theatrical achievements during the reign of king Władysław IV, who founded the first permanent opera theatre in Poland-- and one of the first in the world-- with a stage in the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the Polish Royal Opera strives for the magnificence for which the Chapel Royal at the courts of the Polish Vasa kings was famous. On the other hand, the impressive building of the Royal Theatre in the Łazienki Park is a reminder the flourishing of the opera during the reign of the King Stanisław August Poniatowski, who was the initiator of the construction. At present, this is the main stage of the Polish Royal Opera, an institution whose mission is to cultivate and popularize Polish musical heritage, and to build and strengthen the Polish and European identity focused around the three Platonic ideals: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.
'To build and strengthen the Polish and European identity focused around the three Platonic ideals: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.' Gosh. This must be the 'fascism corrupting Poland' that the Euroleft is always going on about.
No idea how the Royal Opera and the National Opera manage to operate and program on each other's doorsteps but so far as I can tell the 'missions' are rather different, the Royal Opera having no inclination to stage yet another grand production of Verdi or Puccini and the National Opera happy to leave e.g. Maciej Kamieński's Sorrow Made Happy (I prefer the English Misery Contented that the Royal Opera's current production uses) or Handel's Rodelinda to the Royal Opera.
Domine, salvum fac Polonia! God save Poland!
***
Comments
Post a Comment